BILL Gates, Microsoft co-founder, interestingly stated in one of his books titled, ‘Business at the Speed of Thought’ that: “Human beings are not the biggest animals. We’re not the strongest or the fastest. We’re not the sharpest in sight and\or smell. It’s amazing how we survived against the fierce creature of nature. We survived and prospered because of our brains.” Similarly, this writer has empirically concluded, in the vein like some experts and leading minds in the field, that the critical currency and winning edge in the 21st century is – Brainpower. We have moved from the Industrial Age, where brawn holds sway! In today’s knowledge-driven era, knowledge is key. Across the entire globe, from Africa to the America, Australia to Asia and so on, the race for the acquisition and expansion of this phenomenon is on the increase! Global competitiveness today is predicated on knowledge power (Scientific Intelligence!) – which translates simply to Human Capital Base of a country, in the 21st century.
Surprisingly, Steven Silbiger, the author of “Jewish Phenomenon”, wrote in his book that he was interested in searching for the secret behind the rise of the Jewish people in America. Silbiger wanted to unearth the critical factors responsible for the rise of the Jewish immigrants in the U.S. Coincidentally, however, my scientific curiosity began after a long bombardment with stories, reports and contextual evidence of China and India’s global rein and pervasiveness: from education to breakthrough innovation, technology to trade, geopolitics to globalization, and much more, these nations have continued to have controlling and compelling presence. Interestingly enough, I too, like millions of people on earth, before now, see these countries as mere demographic giants! Nothing more. But today’s global realities have forced us to abandon such label. My reasoned and deeply-considered question now is: How did China and India turn-around their economies so dramatically and continues to create national infrastructure to sustain this feat in the global marketplace? It is on record that these countries were late entrants into the global economy. I was searching for the critical element(s) behind the rise of these twenty-first century ‘Asian Lions’, not tigers: China and India. And in order to achieve the object of my scientific quest, I forayed into an in depth and exploratory study of these economic phenomena to quench my scientific curiosity.
Exhaustive researches, internet based studies, etc. and the like were used to further collate data, carry out diagnosis and analysis. Furthermore, in my quest to have a graphic scientific understanding of these phenomena, I enrolled into The Harvard Online Extension School of Distance Education, where I studied the course titled – “CHINA: Traditions and Transformation. All this, gave me the opportunity to gather and glean an empire of empirical evidence that would serve as reliable framework for my theoretical analysis. In the course of my journey, I was earnestly searching for the Eureka moment!, that Holy Grail, the secret sauce behind the concept which I phrased – China and India Advantage (CIA). Like the famed Archimedes, I, too, found it…
Be that as it may, in my scientific search, something happened on October 1st, 2013. I had an overwhelming compulsion to write an article based on the universe of empirical evidence I had gleaned and the danger I saw coming if we don’t focus on revamping our educational system, in Nigeria. ‘The Punch’, Africa’s most widely circulated newspaper published the article titled, EDUCATION: The Obituary of Nigeria. Little did I know, that metaphorically speaking, and as my research confirmed, and the profile of my evidence continues to snowball, that there also looms the potential obituaries of so many countries as China and India competitively position themselves, to replace America and other western developed nations in the new global ecosystem! Some experts in the field have already started reiterating this fact. For example, Nandan Nilekani claims that, ‘Britain dominated the nineteenth century, America dominated the twentieth century, and China will dominate the twenty-first century.’
According to a study conducted by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and published in 2012 by Wall Street Journal, one of the findings goes thus, ‘The countries with the most highly educated citizens are also the wealthiest in the world. The United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Finland, Norway, Isreal, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia also have the largest Gross Domestic Products. All these countries aggressively invest in education.’ In the same vein, in a presentation to graduating students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, former Minister of Education, and World Bank executive – Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili said: ‘Economic evidence throughout numerous researches proves that one key variable that determines how fast nations outgrow others is the speed of accumulation of its human capital especially through science and technology education.’ Today, statistical evidence from studies discovered that these countries (China and India!) focus more on churning SMEs (Science, Mathematics and Engineering) grads than other nations in the world! And their governments are focused on using education as one of their formidable strategic tools for global competitiveness and domination. Take for instance the ongoing government-backed education campaign slogan in China (‘Reading, is my lifestyle’).The government is investing massively in making China the Intellectual powerhouse of the globe of the 21st century. On the other hand, David Godine recently said: ‘Only 32 percent of the U.S. population has ever been to a bookstore.’ Unfortunately, this is the case in so many countries, including Nigeria. Reliable sources say China, alone, produces close to 3 million graduates and India, 2.5 million, annually.
Thomas L. Friedman wrote in his classic book titled “The World is Flat”, he said, “Indeed, a lot of those new players from India, China and the former Soviet Empire are not just walking into the flat world field with their enormous hunger to get ahead of out-learning their competition.’ He added: “What we are witnessing is a mad dash – born of fifty years of pent – up aspirations in places like India, China and the former Soviet Empire, where for five decades young people were educated, but not given an outlet at home to really fulfill their potential.’ Currently, as the world becomes more globalised and countries begin to adopt the concept of democracy and free market economy, global competition in the areas of quality education and Human Capital Growth (HCG) intensify, among nations of the world, these aforementioned countries, including some of their sisters countries like Japan, South Korea to mention a few, will continue to leverage on their academic advantage, not only to lead other continents i.e. America and Africa, but to call the shots and have their say in geopolitical, socio – economic and other landscapes hence forth! The issue of Syria and Ukraine is a typical example, today.
In addition, I read this remarkable and instructive story about Infosys (Indian Outsourcing Company and one of the biggest in the world!) It clearly represents the central theme in the foregoing piece. It says, ‘One summer, for its one hundred internship position, Infosys received about 9,000 applications, primarily from North America, China, France and Germany. Vicki Chan, one of the interns from U.S. was reported to have responded when asked the reason for being there. She said: ‘All the business is going to India, and I don’t see why I should not follow the business.” On China, let me hazard this related item. In his book, “The China Strategy”, Edward Tse, opined the following fact–based statement, “Perhaps the most significant indicator is the increasing presence of China’s investment and business presence in every other major region, from Africa to Europe to the Indian subcontinent to the American(“).”As we enter ‘The Digital Age’ powered by knowledge workers; experts and keen observers of the emerging phenomenon have dubbed it – ‘The Age of Asia!’ China today, has emerged as a global economic power block – anchored on its increasing: Brainpower Base (BB)!
Furthermore, I wanted to find out, not only the major factor behind the amazing rise of China and India, but to study and unearth the core causal element(s) responsible for their ‘National Strategic Advantage (NSA). Also, I wanted to find out if there is any scientific connection between education and economic prosperity in a country. And to scientifically appease this curiosity, I diligently sought for empirical evidence on education. I combed for education-based data. I asked numerous empirically questions. For instance, one of my questions is: Why has China, especially the famed Shanghai students continued to excel academically than their peers in other nations of the world? China, for instance, outsmarted other countries in 2009’s Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), despite the fact that they only joined the global education comparison tests for the first time in 2009, since its inception in 2000. It repeated, easily, same feat in 2012 when the results were published on December 3rd, 2013. Angel Gurria, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Secretary General remarked, “In a global economy, competitiveness and future job prospects will depend on what people can do with what they know. Young people are the future, so every country must do everything it can to improve its education system and prospects of future generations”. More so, Cheng Kai-Ming, Professor of Education at Hong Kong University, and closely involved in the Hong Kong and Shanghai’s tests, puts the results down to ‘a devotion to education not shared by some other countries.’ The current American engineered pop-culture and pro-education culture of Asians anchored on one of Confucian values, need a critical study, by societies intent on improving their education systems in modern times, I humbly suggest. I think and believe, based on research and critical observation, that it is one of the main reasons behind the declining educational performance and passion for intellectually-based aspirations in the western world, i.e. America today!
As a matter of fact, after series of reasoning and reflection, pondering over the web and wealth of empirical evidence at my intellectual disposal, I formulated the theory of FCI (Foundational and Cornerstone Infrastructure). Theoretically speaking, I believe if we focus on building sound and solid foundation at the beginning of any noble goal, or enterprise, determining its outcome need not trouble us. This is because, we have conceived and executed the Principle and Law of Causation (PLC), which is universal and constant. FCI is paradigm, predicated on “Natural Laws and Principles of Goal Attainment’! The Chinese and Indians have both invested and are continuously investing in building solid foundations for churning out quality Human Capital, the truest engine of economic and ecosystem development. Foundation determines outcomes, paraphrasing Bishop David Oyedepo, the founder of the World’s largest church according to the Guinness Book of Records. To empirically substantiate this, in 1951, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian’s Prime Minister set up seven premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in the Eastern city of Kharagpur. Also, six Indian Institutes of Management to teach Business Administration were created. These, without mincing words laid the foundation for the burgeoning brainpower of India. History has it that it was the surplus of Indian computer engineers and professionals that came to the rescue during the heydays of ‘Millennium Bug’ or Y2K in 1999. China, on the other hand was a bit unlucky. The critical elements that would have formed the bedrock of China’s Brainpower Base, even before India, were purged in the late 40’s following Chairman Mao Zedong’s introduction of the regrettable ‘Cultural Revolution’ and ‘The Great Leap Forward’ projects. These elements reemerged and organized themselves after his demise, no thanks to the insightful leadership of Deng Xiaoping and his thoughtful team. Since then, China’s cautious flirtations with democracy and free market economy and trade liberalization, aggressive education investment and the like were established.
According to a recent reliable demographic data, China has about 1.3billion population and India, 1.1 billion people, and with the increasing revolution and consistent advancement in medicines, increasing life expectancies, rising middle classes, huge domestic markets, massive poverty reductions, ravenous rage for reading, knowledge and education (at home and overseas) and the like, these staggering figures are probably going to rise. For example, a report by the Institute of International Education (IIE), states that: ‘Indian sent more students to college in the United States in 2004-05 than did any other country in the world. IIE reports say 80,466 foreign students enrolled in the U.S. were from India, followed by 62, 525 from China, and 53, 358 from South Korea.’ Most of the students are studying business, engineering, math, or computer science and other STEM-related courses which are the engines of the 21st century Global Economy. The omnipresence of Chinese and Indian brainpower and knowledge workforce, in the global ecosystem today, is the most profound reason behind the concept of CIA, not demographics, globalization, liberalization and so on, even though they confer some advantages. For these countries and their citizenry, evidence shows, education is the only way, for them, there is none other to achieving economic and social freedom!
The late Nigerian sage, Obafemi Awolowo wrote in one of his classic books titled ‘The People’s Republic’, “The cardinal aim of education is not as is popularly but narrowly conceived, to teach a man to read and write, to acquire a profession, to master a vocation, to be versed in the liberal arts. All these are only means to the end of education, which is to help a man to live a full, happy and triumphant life”. In this connection, a report by the World Bank states, instructively, that ‘In 1990 there were roughly 375 million people in China living in extreme poverty, on less than $1 per day. By 2001, there were 212 million Chinese living in extreme poverty, and by 2015, if the current trends hold, there will be only 16 million living on less than $1 per day.”What an amazing economic feat! Interestingly, today, China alone has the highest number of billionaires in the world, it has emerged the second global economy after the U.S., the world’s number 1 trading nation, world’s cleverest country and the list goes on and on. Both countries produce more than 8 million graduates annually, India churns out more than 89,000 MBAs yearly, reports say.
As I approach the end of this evidence-driven article, lesson for Americans, African, Arabs, and the ‘Average’ and other races and countries is that they too can adopt, ape, and\or clone the China and Indian model! Simply because, success today, in the emerging global economy hinges on this concept: Brainpower to Superpower! Or, to use President Barack Obama’s phrase, ‘classroom to showroom.’ Human Capital, is greater than material capital, mind is greater than matter! The true GDP of a nation is the combination of a country’s Natural Resources(NR) and Human Resource(HR); and the optimization of the HR(especially via scientific education!) into Human Capital(HC). It is only via the strategic deployment of HC to NR that guarantees economic and blanket growth and development of country! Little wonder, Bill Gates said: ‘I would rather be a genius born in China today than an average guy in Poughkeepsie.’
In sum, Robert Greene, wrote in ‘Mastery’, ‘Our dominance, our mastery does not stem from our hands but from our brains, from our fashioning the mind into the most powerful instrument known in nature – far more powerful than any claw.’ Sir Winston Churchill couldn’t be more right, considering the fierce invasion of China and India into the fabric of the global economy and ecosystem, at large!
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